TeenRead Books

Beauty Queens

07/27/2011

This is not your run-of-the-mill teen novel! There are so many powerful pieces: themes, characters, setting, all working together to create one dynamic story. Naturally, different readers will have different reactions to this book. For example, some readers might roll their eyes at the "Woman Power" theme or at some of the stereotypical beauty queen characters. Other readers might embrace these facets. How about you? Was this a book you loved or not-quite-loved? What did you love about it, or what would have made it better for you?

07/13/2011

The characters in Beauty Queens have the perfect opportunity for personal growth. Trapped on an island with only their own resourcefulness to rely on, the girls must dig deep and use every ounce of strength inside them... sometimes, it was strength they didn't know they had. Of course, dire circumstances bring out the best and the worst in people, as we see over the course of this book. Which character do you think changed the most, and in what ways? Which character do you think changed the least, and why do you think she didn't change?

06/29/2011

In Beauty Queens, we meet all kinds of unique characters. There's Taylor, who insists on practicing for the pageant despite the circumstances. There's Shanti, who plays up her cultural heritage to the extreme. There's straightforward, assertive Adina, who ends up getting hurt. Was there one character in particular who you really enjoyed getting to know? Was there a character who really added a lot to the story for you?

06/15/2011

You've probably noticed product placement in movies and TV shows (the glamorous main character is drinking a certain brand of soft drink... and being paid lots of money to show off that soft drink). Or how about celebrity spokespeople? Sometimes a star endorses a product that he or she doesn't even have a connection to (a tennis player endorsing a certain brand of tennis balls is one thing, but a football star plugging a particular brand of bread seems like a big jump). In Beauty Queens, we see quite a bit of product-pushing from The Corporation. An example is on page 316, the Commercial Break featuring Maxi-Pad Pets. The author really makes these placements/endorsements over-the-top, which helps us to see their ridiculous nature. What do you think about the products and the treatment of product placement/endorsement in the book? Is there a particular example that stands out to you? How do you think these pieces added to (or detracted from) the book overall?

06/01/2011

This book is wickedly funny. Commercial breaks, the girls' extreme personalities, and the ridiculous situation all contribute to the hilarity. But at the same time, readers are left with a lot of questions about the airplane passengers who didn't survive the crash. Not a lot of attention is given to the non-survivors; they're more or less forgotten. While this could be very confusing, disappointing, or disjointed in some books, in this one it really works. Why do you think it works? How was the author able to pull it off? Hint: there's no right or wrong answer! Just wondering what made it "okay" for you as a reader to laugh at the book despite the fact a bunch of people died in it.

05/23/2011

When a plane crash strands thirteen teen beauty contestants on a mysterious island, they struggle to survive, to get along with one another, to combat the island's other diabolical occupants, and to learn their dance numbers in case they are rescued in time for the competition.